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WVU’s 2026 Baseball Season Historic
June 24, 2026 12:51 PM | Baseball
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Four turned out to be the number for the 2026 West Virginia University baseball team following its top-four finish in this year's Men's College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska.
Coach Steve Sabins' 47-17 Mountaineers concluded an historic campaign by finishing fourth in most of the major college baseball rankings, including the final USA Today Poll released earlier this week. That poll is conducted weekly throughout the regular season and relies on a panel of 31 Division I head coaches.
Before the coaches' poll, initiated in 1991, the Arizona-based Collegiate Baseball Magazine rankings were considered the most reliable historically because they included input from coaches, sports information directors and sportswriters. It began in 1958 and lasted until the publication ceased operations in 2023.
Incidentally, the NCAA recognizes D1Baseball.com's Poll for its official rankings on its website; D1baseball.com also had West Virginia fourth in its final rankings.
Another notable college baseball poll, Baseball America's Top 25, has been around since 1981. West Virginia's first-ever appearance in that publication's final rankings was in 2019.
The Associated Press, which has long produced polls for football, men's basketball and women's basketball, does not rank college baseball teams.
Therefore, for historical purposes, Collegiate Baseball and USA Today are the ones used for the final rankings referenced below:
Mountaineers in the Final College Baseball Polls
2026 – 4th
2025 – 17th
2024 – 17th
2019 – 20th
1982 – 16th
1967 – 20th
1964 – 15th
1963 – 11th
1962 – 20th
1961 – 24th
Collectively, this season is just the 10th time in program history West Virginia has finished ranked in one of the major baseball polls, and the first time ever in the top five!
Coach Steve Harrick's 1963 Mountaineers climbed to No. 3 in the national rankings on May 22, 1963, just prior to the team's appearance in the NCAA District 3 Championships held at Sims Legion Park in Gastonia, North Carolina.
Fourth-ranked Wake Forest outlasted the Mountaineers 5-3 in the opening game and then knocked WVU out of the tournament a day later when it bested West Virginia 12-7.
In between, WVU advanced to the District 3 lower bracket final when it eliminated 18th-ranked Auburn 2-1 in the day-one nightcap.
Harrick's 1964 team began the season ranked 11th, and climbed to No. 8 on May 7, 1964, before enduring back-to-back losses to Penn State and Virginia Tech. WVU concluded the regular season ranked 10th and then dropped both NCAA Tournament games to third-ranked Ole Miss and East Carolina in North Carolina.
West Virginia's other brief poll visits occurred in 1965, 1967, 1968, 1971 and 1982 when coach Dale Ramburg's 1982 squad upset its way through the Eastern Eight Tournament and then captured NCAA Tournament loser's bracket victories over Old Dominion and East Carolina before falling to South Carolina in the Columbia, South Carolina, Regional.
Despite having just a 24-23 overall record that season, Collegiate Baseball listed the Mountaineers 16th in its final poll.
It would take West Virginia 35 long years before its next appearance in the rankings on April 17, 2017, when coach Randy Mazey's Mountaineers cracked the USA Today Coaches' Poll at No. 25.
The next visit happened nearly two years later on April 15, 2019.
Since then, West Virginia has made 42 appearances comprising 61% of the total times it has been in the national rankings.
Indeed, it's been an historic run for the Mountaineer program.
"Only us and North Carolina have been to three consecutive Super Regionals, so the consistency of winning has been elite at West Virginia," Sabins said earlier this week during a guest appearance on The Pat McAfee Show. "(2026) was the first time in program history to get to Omaha. I was always selling the hell out of this place to recruits, saying, 'Hey, we're going to do things that have never been done in program history before,' and that was really easy 10 years ago when we hadn't been to a regional.
"But I'm starting to run out of (stuff) to say, really, and pretty soon, you've got to go win a national title, and this program hasn't done that," he added. "We firmly believe that we are capable of doing that that here."
Sabins has managed to sidestep West Virginia's modest recent success by accentuating the positives the University has to offer.
"Everywhere has got obstacles," he pointed out. "Everywhere has got their issues, but what we've got now is unbelievable facilities, beautiful people, the best fanbase in the country and really good recruiting around this area.
"West Virginia is not really ripe for recruiting; there are not enough folks here, right? It's 1.8 million people in the whole state, and you look at some of these other schools, and there's more people in the metro area than us, so we've got our challenges."
Then he added, "But if you're looking to get better and you're looking to win with the best culture, the best staff and the best developmental resources in the country, this is the spot. The baseball people know, but we're starting to be a little bit more on that national stage, and when you get all of that, all of a sudden, it kind of opens up the window to new recruits."
Sabins referenced a top prospect visiting Morgantown this week because of the team's appearance in the Men's College World Series.
"We've got some guys from across the country that maybe we didn't have access to before, and so, we've got to sign those guys. We've got to lock those dudes up," he concluded.
Being ranked No. 4 in the country certainly has a way of getting recruits' attention.
Coach Steve Sabins' 47-17 Mountaineers concluded an historic campaign by finishing fourth in most of the major college baseball rankings, including the final USA Today Poll released earlier this week. That poll is conducted weekly throughout the regular season and relies on a panel of 31 Division I head coaches.
Before the coaches' poll, initiated in 1991, the Arizona-based Collegiate Baseball Magazine rankings were considered the most reliable historically because they included input from coaches, sports information directors and sportswriters. It began in 1958 and lasted until the publication ceased operations in 2023.
Incidentally, the NCAA recognizes D1Baseball.com's Poll for its official rankings on its website; D1baseball.com also had West Virginia fourth in its final rankings.
Another notable college baseball poll, Baseball America's Top 25, has been around since 1981. West Virginia's first-ever appearance in that publication's final rankings was in 2019.
The Associated Press, which has long produced polls for football, men's basketball and women's basketball, does not rank college baseball teams.
Therefore, for historical purposes, Collegiate Baseball and USA Today are the ones used for the final rankings referenced below:
Mountaineers in the Final College Baseball Polls
2026 – 4th
2025 – 17th
2024 – 17th
2019 – 20th
1982 – 16th
1967 – 20th
1964 – 15th
1963 – 11th
1962 – 20th
1961 – 24th
Collectively, this season is just the 10th time in program history West Virginia has finished ranked in one of the major baseball polls, and the first time ever in the top five!
Coach Steve Harrick's 1963 Mountaineers climbed to No. 3 in the national rankings on May 22, 1963, just prior to the team's appearance in the NCAA District 3 Championships held at Sims Legion Park in Gastonia, North Carolina.
Fourth-ranked Wake Forest outlasted the Mountaineers 5-3 in the opening game and then knocked WVU out of the tournament a day later when it bested West Virginia 12-7.
In between, WVU advanced to the District 3 lower bracket final when it eliminated 18th-ranked Auburn 2-1 in the day-one nightcap.
Harrick's 1964 team began the season ranked 11th, and climbed to No. 8 on May 7, 1964, before enduring back-to-back losses to Penn State and Virginia Tech. WVU concluded the regular season ranked 10th and then dropped both NCAA Tournament games to third-ranked Ole Miss and East Carolina in North Carolina.
West Virginia's other brief poll visits occurred in 1965, 1967, 1968, 1971 and 1982 when coach Dale Ramburg's 1982 squad upset its way through the Eastern Eight Tournament and then captured NCAA Tournament loser's bracket victories over Old Dominion and East Carolina before falling to South Carolina in the Columbia, South Carolina, Regional.
Despite having just a 24-23 overall record that season, Collegiate Baseball listed the Mountaineers 16th in its final poll.
It would take West Virginia 35 long years before its next appearance in the rankings on April 17, 2017, when coach Randy Mazey's Mountaineers cracked the USA Today Coaches' Poll at No. 25.
The next visit happened nearly two years later on April 15, 2019.
Since then, West Virginia has made 42 appearances comprising 61% of the total times it has been in the national rankings.
Indeed, it's been an historic run for the Mountaineer program.
"Only us and North Carolina have been to three consecutive Super Regionals, so the consistency of winning has been elite at West Virginia," Sabins said earlier this week during a guest appearance on The Pat McAfee Show. "(2026) was the first time in program history to get to Omaha. I was always selling the hell out of this place to recruits, saying, 'Hey, we're going to do things that have never been done in program history before,' and that was really easy 10 years ago when we hadn't been to a regional.
"But I'm starting to run out of (stuff) to say, really, and pretty soon, you've got to go win a national title, and this program hasn't done that," he added. "We firmly believe that we are capable of doing that that here."
Sabins has managed to sidestep West Virginia's modest recent success by accentuating the positives the University has to offer.
"Everywhere has got obstacles," he pointed out. "Everywhere has got their issues, but what we've got now is unbelievable facilities, beautiful people, the best fanbase in the country and really good recruiting around this area.
"West Virginia is not really ripe for recruiting; there are not enough folks here, right? It's 1.8 million people in the whole state, and you look at some of these other schools, and there's more people in the metro area than us, so we've got our challenges."
Then he added, "But if you're looking to get better and you're looking to win with the best culture, the best staff and the best developmental resources in the country, this is the spot. The baseball people know, but we're starting to be a little bit more on that national stage, and when you get all of that, all of a sudden, it kind of opens up the window to new recruits."
Sabins referenced a top prospect visiting Morgantown this week because of the team's appearance in the Men's College World Series.
"We've got some guys from across the country that maybe we didn't have access to before, and so, we've got to sign those guys. We've got to lock those dudes up," he concluded.
Being ranked No. 4 in the country certainly has a way of getting recruits' attention.
Steve Sabins, Gavin Kelly, Dawson Montesa, Reese Bassinger | College World Series | June 16
Tuesday, June 16
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Tuesday, June 16
Steve Sabins, Armani Guzman, Tyrus Hall, Ian Korn | College World Series | June 12
Tuesday, June 16
Steve Sabins, Chansen Cole, Gavin Kelly | College World Series | June 11
Tuesday, June 16
